Hoover Limited

Proserv UK Limited

David Benjamin Smith

Adam James O'Leary

Nathan Alan Paculba

David Ewen Gibson

Kevin Grant Munro

A subsea friction welding apparatus comprises a chuck for supporting and retaining a weld item prior to welding the weld item to a work-piece, said chuck comprises a plurality of jaws having an internal profile to grip a corresponding profiled surface on the weld item and means for radially expanding the internal profile of the jaws of the chuck, said means actuable by axial insertion of the weld item into the chuck thereby avoiding relative rotation of the chuck and the weld item during insertion of the weld item into the chuck. In operation of the method, a supply of weld items and a weld head are deployed to a subsea location and the weld items are loaded via ROV into the weld head at the subsea location.

Subsea welding apparatus and method

A cyclonic separation apparatus comprises a plurality of series-connected separation stages, each comprising a plurality of cyclone separatorsconnected in parallel and disposed in a generally annular arrangement about a main vertical axis of the apparatus, with their respective longitudinal cyclone axes extending parallel to the main axis. The successive separation stagesin the direction of fluid flow are disposed radially inwardly of each other with respect to the main axis of the apparatus and are also vertically staggered upwardly, so that the outletof one separation stageleads directly into the inletof the next downstream stage. The multi-stage, series connected cyclone separators of the apparatus provide a high separation efficiency, yet the annular arrangement of the stagesmakes the apparatus compact and enables the apparatus to be utilized in a vacuum cleaner.

Cyclonic separation apparatus

A cyclonic vacuum cleaner comprises a first stagecomprising a single cyclone separator for separating heavier dirt and dust particles and a second stagecomprising a plurality of cyclone separatorsarranged in parallel in a plurality of groups, each group of cyclone separatorscomprising a respective inlet duct, each inlet ductbeing connected at its upstream end to the first stageand at its downstream end to the cyclone separatorsof its respective group.

A cyclonic separation apparatus comprising at least two series connected separation stages and a receptacle for collecting material separated by the separation stages is described. The first stage comprises a first cyclone separator, and the second stage comprises a plurality of parallel connected second cyclone separators. The first and second separation stages are connected by at least one transfer duct which extends through the receptacle and transfers fluid that has been partly cleaned by the first separation stage to the second separation stage.

A vacuum cleaner includes a pair of low efficiency cyclones connected upstream of respective groups of high efficiency cyclones by respective elongate ducts. The high efficiency cyclones of each group can be arranged in a line or a cluster extending away from their respective low efficiency cyclone, such that at least a portion of one side of the low efficiency cyclone is exposed. The high efficiency cyclones can be connected to their respective elongate ducts at respective positions along the length thereof, with each cyclone comprising an inlet connecting to the duct. The inlets of each high efficiency cyclone can be stepped along the axis of the duct with respect to the inlet of each other cyclone of the group, in a direction which extends across the width of the duct.

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Glasgow, United Kingdom

David Benjamin Smith